Inhabiting Sore Butt Cracks : Queering the U.S. Long-Term Care System

Abstract

In the face of a failing long-term care system, the author positions a queer theoretical lens as a potential source of creativity and empathy to help us build a care system that supports the dignity and personhood of all patients. The comedic work of a long-term care patient, Youtuber Clay-The-Comedian, is analyzed through a queer-theories lens as a new approach to long-term care that celebrates the personhood of all types of bodies, while also never diminishing the often difficult reality that folks in need of care face. This queer rhetoric engages with the messy, embodied experiences of patients to develop a remedy to our broken system, wherein the inevitable period of disability between old age and death is recognized as still valuable. When we inhabit difficult spaces with one another, we may discover exciting, non-normative forms of fulfillment